Challenge

Advanced Sheet Metal Design Using NX Cad Challenge_5_Odd Shaped Enclosure

VV Rahul Venkat4 Jun 2023

ADVANCED SHEETMETAL DESIGN OF ODD ENCLOSURE USING NX CAD

Objective: To create ODD ENCLOSURE in solid model and converting it to a SHEETMETAL using SHEETMETAL WIZARD command in NX CAD

Introduction:

Sheet metal is a metal formed by an industrial process into thin, flat pieces. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Countless everyday objects are fabricated from sheet metal. Thickness can vary significantly; extremely thin sheets are considered foil or leaf, and pieces thicker than 6mm (0.25 inch) are considered plate, such as plate steel, a class of structural steel. Sheet metal is available in flat pieces or coiled strips. The coils are formed by running a continuous sheet of metal through a roll slitter. There are many different metals that can be made into sheet metal, such as aluminium, brass, copper, steel, tin, nickel and titanium.

Sheet metal is used in automobile and truck (lorry) bodies, major appliances, airplane fuselages and wings, tinplate for tin cans, roofing for buildings and many other applications.

Design Methodology

Odd shaped enclosure is the enclosure with odd shapes or angles. These enclosures are created by taking the shape of a solid body, by wrapping the sheet metal over it.

Features/ Commands used

1. Extrude

Use the extrude command to create a solid or sheet body by selecting a section of curves, edges, faces, sketches or curve features and extending them in a linear distance.

2. Sheet metal from solid

This command builds a sheet metal model that takes its shape from a collection of planar faces of a solid. The sheet metal model forms over the solid and avoids sharp corners.

3. Flange

This command is used to add a flat flange at an angle to a planar face and add a bend between the two edges or walls. The flange can only be made on a straight edge.

5. Jog

Use the jog command to create an offset or a step in a tab. You can use small jogs to provide clearance or rigidity to a part. The section for the jog must consist of a single line across a planar face. NX creates the jog by lifting material on one side of the jog line and adding a flange between the two sides.

6. Unbend

Unbend command is used to flatten the model through selected bends with respect to selected face. All the flanges and bends of a model are flattened using this command to add more features.

7. Bead

Bead tool is used to create an embossed or engraved bead on sheet metal part using single entity or a set tangentially connected entities.

8. Hole

Hole command constructs one or more holes in the ordered environment. We can use the hole command to construct simple, threaded, tapered, counterbored, and countersunk holes.